Unions To Boost Halter

The AFL-CIO political committee voted to endorse Lt. Gov. Bill Halter's primary challenge to Blanche Lincoln yesterday, and have pledged to spend at least $3 million to help elect him. That's not a surprise: the labor movement has been chief among those encouraging Halter to primary Lincoln after Lincoln disappointed labor by rejecting the Employee Free Choice Act and dawdling on health care reform. Expect to see individual AFL-CIO unions come out for Halter, too -- and expect to see Halter fill his campaign with labor-inflected staff. Labor density in Arkansas is among the lowest of any state in the union, according to BLS statistics.

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Marc Ambinder is a contributing editor at TheAtlantic. He is also a senior contributor at Defense One, a contributing editor at GQ, and a regular contributor at The Week.